New York
by like.CSI.real
Summary: A St.Berry friendly finale. All the moments that SHOULD of happened!


**A/N - SO SO angry at the finale, they just forgot about him AGAIN! why can't us shippers ever get some resolution:'**

**so I'm twisting the finale into a friendly one:D **

Rachel stood in Times Square glancing around in awe, she was actually _here_.

"I made it!" she squealed, clenching her fists in excitement. She felt another hand wrap itself around hers, and their fingers entwine naturally. She looks up to Jesse and see's him smiling fondly down at her.

'Isn't it amazing, Jesse? All my dreams are in this city, every time I come back it feels like I'm really home' she sighs and leans onto his shoulder, he wraps his arm around her waist.

'It is amazing. I have everything I need right here' he smiles, kissing her hair. 'New York is just a bonus.'

She was about to respond when a very dirty looking old man came up to them smiling with a tooth missing.

'Well don't you too look very much in love?' The man charms, making me Rachel smile proudly and Jesse smirk whilst raising an eyebrow at him, 'I am offering you both tickets to the musical Cats for a very good price you see...' he shows them both two tickets, and Rachel's face lights up at the sight.

'Omg Jesse! We ha-' She begins to say before getting cut off by Jesse glare at the man.

'Who do you think I am? I'm not stupid, Cats finished 11 years back, go con someone else!' He raises his head, challenging the man to say anything further. The man practically scrambles away, leaving Rachel dumbfounded.

'But...How did I not know that?' She wails, causing Jesse to chuckle.

'It's alright Rach, everyone's a bit crazy in New York' He winks at her, wrapping his arms around her and placing his head on top of hers, 'I'll take you to see anything you want' he whispers in her ear, making her smile into his chest.

* * *

><p><em>Saying what's up to my cup, ah! Saying what's up to my cup!<em>

Jesse winces, relieved that the song was finally over. The whole room was full of horrified faces and forced smiles.

'Wait...did you really just sing about a cup?' Tina exclaims, Mike shaking his head silently beside her.

'Oh my God...' Rachel moans into his shoulder, 'How are we going to win with this?'

Jesse smirks and remembers something.

'_My headband, you're my headband, wrapped right around my melon, your product like mag-' _She cuts off his singing with her death glare, he just smiles back at her.

* * *

><p>'Guys, I think that one of our songs should be a duet between me and Rachel...' Finn asks the other guys in the room. They all look at each other confused.<p>

'I just want to win' Mike mumbles, too busy playing a video game to pay attention to Finn. 'I swear last regionals, we lost with a duet between you too?' he asks, and Artie nods along with Mike.

'Hey can we just talk about the Jewish elephant in the room?' Puck states, sitting up, 'Finn we all know you like Rachel, but she's with Jesse now and she's happy man,' Finn begins to shake his head ignorantly.

'No but she loves me man, it's me and Rachel, its always been us, Jesse is just a rebound for her, I want to try and get her back, I mean, it's New York!' Finn argues, he knows Rachel loves only him, it was just a matter of showing her it.

* * *

><p>Rachel sighs, irritated that the girls in her room are having a pillow fight instead of working hard at songs like she is. Rachel was just about to yell at them when her phone buzzed, and she picked it up curiously.<p>

_Take a break from work, my songwriting star, I want to take you out, put on your favorite dress for me? - Jesse x_

Rachel smiled and closed her notebook.

I could use a break, she thinks to herself.

* * *

><p>'Oh my God, I can't believe we're at Sardis! Sardis is the birthplace of-'<p>

'The Tony Award' Jesse finishes, grinning and nodding, glancing at her over his menu. 'You look beautiful by the way,'

Rachel smiles at him, about to hold his hand when something catches her attention, her jaw drops.

'Oh my God, it's Patti Lupone!' She breaths, Jesse's head whips round to follow her gaze and confirms her sighting, he turns back round to face her, trying to hide his slight excitement.

'Rachel, hey look its your mom,' He teases lightly, snapping Rachel out of her trance, she laughs at Jesse's comment, remembering their conversation all that time ago.

'Oh no...I can't do this' she moans and looks down nervously.

'Go talk to her!' He urges, 'A Broadway legend is right there Rachel, you can't miss this!' He squeezes her hand and nods reassuringly. Rachel takes a deep breath and stands up.

'Excuse me, Miss Lupone? I have to say you're my idol, and my boyfriend Jesse is a huge fan too!' She stutters, and gestures towards Jesse, who looks up at Patti Lupone and smiles warmly, but stays back, letting Rachel live out a dream of hers.

'Well thank you, that's very sweet of you, are you an actress?' Miss Lupone says graciously to Rachel, smiling slightly at her.

'Yes!' She responds immediately, but looks down again, 'Well I-I'm in high school' she stutters.

'She will be though' Jesse pipes up, 'We're in town for our Show Choirs Nationals, but she will be an actress' Jesse smiles proudly at her, Rachel looks at him through her eyelashes, a smile tugging on her lips.

'I was in choir in high school! It was my favorite class!' Miss Lupone exclaims enthusiastically, 'What's your name?' She asks Rachel,

'Rachel Berry, and that's Jesse ' Rachel says hopefully, looking at Miss Lupone smiling.

'Well you two, promise me one thing, you'll never give up' She smiles, shaking both of their hands telling them both 'Good Luck' and telling Rachel 'He's Cute' before walking off.

Rachel and Jesse both grin at each other, realizing fully what had just happened.

* * *

><p>'Oh you're the only one besides me who realizes how amazing this place is' Rachel smiles at her best friend, Kurt, whilst eating her bagel at Tiffany's. 'Which is why I have a secret to tell you..when we graduate I'm coming back here and going to college here, this is where I belong.'<p>

Kurt nods enthusiastically in agreement, 'I'm so coming too, and I've talked to Blaine, he's on board aswell,'

'But what am I going to do about Jesse? I mean, what if he wants to apply again for UCLA? I don't know if a long distant relationship will work, and I can't not live here, and I don't want us to ever break up, not again' Rachel shakes her head and closes her eyes, trying not to imagine it.

'Rachel...are you blind? That boy is whipped. He'll follow you anywhere, trust me,' Kurt shakes his head, smiling at his dramatic best friend. She didn't see how much Jesse loved her. 'Now, follow me, I have something I wanna show you!'

* * *

><p>This was it, Nationals, Rachel was confident that they were going to win it. They had to.<p>

After Mr. Shue had finished his speech, the team began to walk away, but someone grabbed her hand to hold her back, she turned around, angry that someone was stopping her, but the anger just melted when she saw Jesse smiling down at her.

'I just wanted wanted to wish you good luck, although you don't even need it,' Jesse smiled, taking both of her hands in his and squeezing them.

'I know, and I mean, I know that Mr. Shue putting Finn in a duet with me is a brave choice at best, I think I can-' Rachel was cut off by Jesse whispering the one thing that would suprise her the most.

'I love you' He whispers seriously, giving her a smile smile. Rachel felt her jaw drop and her eyes widen slightly, which gave Jesse a sudden panic, 'I mean, I just...I do, so much.' He rushes out, and tries to carry on, but Rachel's hand covers his mouth.

'I love you too,' she looks up at him and she realizes she's never been as happy as she has in this moment, she welcomes the feeling. Jesse is overwhelmed with the feeling that finally something is going right for him in his life, someone _loves _him back.

'You have to go,' Jesse murmurs, looking at the clock, 'I'll be watching you, you're going to be amazing, Rachel' he encourages, letting go of Rachel's hand, and kisses her softly, trying not to touch her face as he knows she worked hard on her makeup. They finally pull apart and walk their separate ways, giving each other once last smile before they get lost in the crowds.

Jesse walks into the theater and takes the seat next to Mr. Shue, 'I couldn't stay away' he explains, looking at the stage.

'From the show, or her?' Mr. Shue smiles at him knowingly, causing Jesse to turn to him in surprise. 'I know, you love her,'

The stage dimming silenced both of the curly haired men.

* * *

><p>Finn looks at Rachel and takes a deep breath, and begins to walk towards her. Rachel looks at him confused and meets him halfway.<p>

'Break a leg Finn, you wrote a good song,' She tries to hurry along this conversation because she needs to focus on the competition now more than ever.

'Who cares about the song, what I don't understand is, all you've ever wanted is for us to be together, and I'm basically standing here begging for you, and suddenly you're not interested.' Finn says bluntly, trying to grab Rachel's hand but she pulls away subtly.

'This is my dream Finn, being here in New York, and I don't want anyone or anything to keep me from it.' She tries to reason with him, not telling him about Jesse, she doesn't want it to affect the performance.

'No, this is about Jesse, ever since he's trying to worm his way back into your life, you've forgotten all about _us!_' Finn begins to raise his voice, Rachel feels herself getting mad.

'Because their is no us, not anymore! It's Jesse, it's always been him, why can't you accept that Finn? Just let me be _happy_!' Rachel argues, trying to regain some of the dignity she through away when she allowed herself to be controlled by Finn in their relationship. 'Jesse and New York are my dream, they make me happy! And whether you like me as a friend, or love me, you should respect that,' She finishes, walking away to her starting position again.

The beginning notes of Finn's song 'Pretending' began to play and Rachel slips into character.

She only realizes how wrong the lyrics are as she finds herself singing them, Finn had set the song up meaning for it to describe their some sort of love song between them. The only thing Rachel feels herself pretending to do now is like Finn as a person, she realized as soon as Finn told her that he didn't even see Fireworks when they kissed how toxic he was, he twisted their relationship was and how much she missed Jesse.

Her thoughts are cut off with huge hands grabbing her face and kissing her.

* * *

><p>Jesse feels his stomach drop and his fists clench when <em>Finn Hudson <em>puts his huge paws on Rachel, kissing her mid song. He lets out a shaky breath that he was holding when he saw Rachel push him away roughly, giving him a look of what he can only think of as disgust. He see's her growl something to Finn before walking hastily to her position of the next song, trying to save the show.

* * *

><p>Rachel comes to her senses a millisecond later and pushes Finn away as harshly as she can.<p>

'I can't believe I ever liked you, if that cost us the competition, I will personally come for you in your sleep.' She growls at him before walking a little too heavily to her starting position. The only reason she didn't walk straight off the stage is because she couldn't let her team down, not for him. So she puts on a show face and tries to pull this mess back together.

But the only thing she thought of throughout the song was Jesse, and if he is okay, so much so that as soon as the song was over, Rachel ran straight off the stage.

* * *

><p>In the lobby, Rachel stomps right up to Finn and slaps him as hard as she could, she was seething with anger.<p>

'I can't believe you did that to me, I can't believe you did that too the team, do you know how unprofessional and vulgar that was? You've probably cost us the competition and for what? Nothing, Finn, I feel nothing for you!' She yells at him, not caring at however many people were watching them. 'But worse, you know that I have a boyfriend! And I love him! Why do you have to destroy every last bit of happiness I have! What if Jesse leaves me for this?' She whispers the last past, closing her eyes tight.

'And miss all your drama? Never,' She hears a voice behind her and begins to turn towards it, and see's a sad Jesse standing not far behind her, and she can't help but run towards him, needing his embrace. She practically throws herself into his arms, and he doesn't hesitate to pull her close. She keeps murmuring that it meant nothing and that she hated it into his chest, and all he can do is whisper loving words to her back. He knows he should be angry, and he is, but at that moment Rachel was upset, and all that mattered was to make her happy again.

'It's okay Rach, I'm still here, I'll never leave you,' He whispers in her ear and all she can do is nod. He kisses the top of her head. When he opens his eyes again, he see's Kurt bound over too them excitedly and he touches Rachel's shoulder to get her attention.

'Oh my God, you guys, the top ten list is up, this is it!' He squeals, leaping back to the group of teenagers walking towards the board. Rachel glances up at Jesse.

'Let's get out of here,' She whispers to him, taking his hand, 'I know we've lost and we deserve to have done,' she mutters, shaking her head in regret.

'Hey, this wasn't you're fault, it was his,' Jesse mutters, tucking her hair behind her and stroking her cheek, 'You've done nothing wrong, believe that,' Jesse kisses her forehead lovingly, 'Now, how about we take you to a show like I promised?'

Rachel can only smile and nod back, taking his hand. They both walk out of the Concert Hall, oblivious to the rest of New Directions sudden hate for Finn Hudson.

* * *

><p>Rachel, Jesse, Kurt and Blaine take seats at their local coffee house back at Lima, and Jesse rests one arm on Rachel's chair, listening to Kurt's story of what happened after they left.<p>

'Oh my God, you should have seen it. We all looked at the top ten for showcase, and we all just went numb, and Quinn just went on and on about how Finn forcing Rachel to kiss him cost us nationals,' Kurt stopped to take a sip of his Latte and Blaine spoke up.

'I can't believe he did that, so unprofessional, and just wrong.' He shakes his head and grimaces.

'Anyway, Santana loses it. She starts screaming at Finn, and three people, _three, _had to restrain her from attacking him like racoon, the plane ride home was completely silent, like no one said a word,' Kurt gossiped, leaning into the three other people on the table.

'But Kurt you don't seem that sad about losing,' Jesse quirks an eyebrow, taking a sip of his coffee. Kurt shrugs at him.

'Well...it was still amazing, I flew on a plane for the first time in my life, I had breakfast at Tiffany's, I sang on a Broadway stage,' Kurt smiles and looks around, 'You know, when you stop and think about it, we've had a pretty good year, for all of us,'

'Yeah, it has been a good year, amazing even,' Jesse smiles down at the girl next to him, knowing that he'll never let her go again.

'And just think, next year, we'll all be going back to New York, just one more year' Rachel exclaims excitedly, leaning into the boy next to him, knowing that everything's just beginning.

**A/N - Not very Finn/Finchel friendly... but i was seriously angry at him in the finale, for being, once again, the most selfish character on the show!H**

**Hope you enjoyed it!**


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